The hours until dawn passed quickly, with sporadic attacks two or three times an hour, as the farmers from the surrounding area, and those who had been on the run in the area, had all come to them after the second bellow by the Royal Rank Minotaur.
His effort seemed much more effective than the first attempt, and Karl wondered if there was something about the voice of Minotaurs that changed with their Rank.
Now, they had nearly a hundred Minotaurs in place and as the sun came up they were making plans to fortify this farm, so they could fall back to it as an emergency resource in the future. "A trench line with a rake fence of spiked poles would slow down even a Giant Boar for a few minutes before it smashed them all apart." One of the farmers was suggesting.
"And where would we get thousands of trees to make it from? We could do a low wall of dirt and stones with a trench on the other side, but that would still mess with the runoff for the fields, and we would risk drought on the farm. Or we could do just the yard." The Matriarch of this farmyard insisted.
That would be a pain for them going to and from the fields, but they could put bridges over the wall, and pull them in if there was danger.
The defensive fortification didn't need to stop an enemy forever, much less actually hurt it. It just had to slow it down enough to give the defenders the advantage.
As the sun came up and everyone could see properly, the extent of the devastation became clear. Hundreds of house fires poured black smoke into the air, while Karl could see ten different red smoke streams, similar to the green ones that had been deployed when the patrol unit called for reinforcements against the Orcs.
But worse, there was a massive plume of black smoke to their east. A pillar of smoke that marked a freshly sacked city on fire. The size of the column made the source unmistakable.
No matter where they looked, there were signs of destruction, and the further into the distance they looked, the worse it got.
The Naga General gestured at Dana and a Satyr guard. "Mage, how strong are you? Can you use that air walking to carry a guard into the air where they can see further? We need to know how far this extends and if there are others we might need to help."
Dana nodded. "It's not a problem. At my rank, carrying a Satyr with me as I [Wind Walk] isn't a problem. I will take them a hundred metres into the air to scout the area, and we will report back in a minute."
She picked up the smallest of the Satyrs and stepped up into the air, running as if climbing stairs.
That was the great drawback to her skill. She still had to walk, so climbing into the air took a lot of physical effort, like running up a flight of stairs or a hillside. But she had been practising hard, and while she was slowing a lot at the end, [Eternal Lightning] gave her enough stamina regeneration that she made it to her chosen viewpoint with enough reserves to run in a circle and scout.
The Satyr looked shaken as they reached the ground, but Dana had already known what was going on. Not only had she been attacking from the air, but the fact that it was a monster spawn was much less unthinkable to her than to the farmers.
"General, I have your report." The Satyr informed them in a shaky voice.
"Go ahead, Sergeant. What did you see?"
"The fortress is under siege, though the battle appears to be close to finished. There are more than ten emergency calls for overrun units active, everything in sight from one hundred metres elevation was either destroyed farmland or hordes of Cyclops and their Giant Boars.
At least fifty kilometres in every direction.
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